I'm really looking forward to fall. As hot and sticky as it has been, I know it has not been as awful as it could be, but I seem to have a really low tolerance for the heat and humidity these days. So I won't complain about it, but I am hopeful that cooler weather is coming soon. I'm ready for a change of seasons and seeing new and forthcoming books always puts me in a good mood. Fall is perhaps the biggest season for new releases and I've been adding lots of titles to my wishlist. As silly as it is, I am always inordinately cheered by looking at forthcoming books lists. I shouldn't look, I have more than enough books on my bedside pile alone to keep me busy for months and months, but I just don't have the determination to 'look the other way'. So, here is a list of ten books that will be released in the next few months that I hope to get a closer look at:
Journey to Munich: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear -- This is actually what prompted me to share a list of forthcoming books. I wasn't even looking in this case, but I came across the title (due next March!) by chance. Alas, no cover art and so far no description of the story, but what a telling title, eh?
Not all Bastards are from Vienna by Andrea Molesini -- Anything about Vienna inevitably catches my eye. It is not a setting as often as I would like. "Andrea Molesini’s exquisite debut novel—winner of the prestigious Campiello Prize—portrays the depths of heroism and horror within a Northern Italian village toward the end of the Great War. While a family’s villa is requisitioned by enemy troops, they are forced to intimately confront war’s injustice as their involvement with its sinister underpinnings grows more and more complex." This one sounds quite promising. Due next February.
Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories by Audrey Niffenegger -- I have been trying to wrap up my summer of murder and mayhem reading. I always have a mystery or two on the go all the time, but I am hoping to reduce my in progress pile considerably this month. You know, of course, RIP is just around the corner and I want to have space on my night table for a book or two to read along with the season and I am a great fan of ghost stories in general. This conveniently comes out October 6. "From Edgar Allen Poe to Kelly Link, M.R. James to Neil Gaiman, H. H. Munro to Audrey Niffenegger herself, Ghostly reveals the evolution of the ghost story genre with tales going back to the eighteenth century and into the modern era, ranging across styles from Gothic Horror to Victorian, with a particular bent toward stories about haunting—haunted children, animals, houses." I am not sure what form my RIP reading will take yet--one good Victorian classic? A little sensationalism a la Wilkie Collins or Mary Elizabeth Braddon? Maybe something by Susan Hill? I'll be scouting around, but I am sure my reading will include some shorter ghost stories.
The Past: A Novel by Tessa Hadley -- I have loved the stories by Hadley that I have read and am determined to read some longer fiction by her. "With subtle precision and deep compassion, Tessa Hadley brilliantly evokes a brewing storm of lust and envy, the indelible connections of memory and affection, the fierce, nostalgic beauty of the natural world, and the shifting currents of history running beneath the surface of these seemingly steady lives. The result is a novel of breathtaking skill and scope that showcases this major writer’s extraordinary talents." Due early January.
River Road: A Novel by Carol Goodman -- How long has it been since I have read any of Goodman's fiction. I had read all of it at one time, but there were several releases I never did get to, and then there has been a little hiatus. This new novel comes out in January. Something to look forward to after the holidays? " . . . a chilling new psychological thriller about a professor accused of killing her favorite student in a hit-and-run accident."
Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James -- I think I have read all of St. James's books, or nearly all of them. She has a new one coming out next April. "England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins…and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…"
After You: A Novel by Jojo Moyes -- I read Me Before You (and I just discovered it has been made into a movie!) and now I need to find out what happened next . . . "Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started." This is out next month.
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz -- Due out in less than a month this YA novel looks intriguing not least since it is in epistolary format. "Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her delicious wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a moving yet comedic tour de force."
Death Sits Down to Dinner: A Mystery by Tessa Arlen -- "Filled with deceptions both real and imagined, Death Sits Down to Dinner is a delightful Edwardian mystery set in London." Hmm. This sounds good--must investigate her books more as I am back on a WWI--era reading kick. There might be other books in the series to loo for while I am waiting for this as it is not to be published until the end of next March.
Swimming in the Shadows by Diane Janes -- And one for the winter holidays since this is due out late December. "Susan McCarthy is a health centre manager in the Yorkshire Dales, engaged to be married to geography teacher Rob Dugdale. Her life couldn’t be happier. Except Susan McCarthy isn’t Susan McCarthy at all, but Jennifer Reynolds, a young woman who has succeeded in escaping a deeply unhappy past."
Sometimes I go looking for new books by favorite authors, and sometimes (like these) I just happen across them in my bookish meanderings. Maybe I need to read a "Autumn" oriented book to make me feel less sticky (and irritable), though I am not quite sure what that would be? Something with an academic setting? Wishful thinking as I return to my 'in progress' pile.